DRAGONFLY Trimarans User Forum

Went on Friday, a good choice for weather. Ran into lots of friends. Wifey was all over the condomarans and lovingly waited on dock while I visited the Dragonfly....I think she is trying to tell me something. Showed salesperson (sorry forgot the name) pic of LKIV and he recognized it from this forum.

Speaking of LKIV.....life has been getting in the way. And now I've decided to build a separate "hangar" for the camper, but also with space for the boat with the entire mast under roof. When that's done we'll get back to the job at hand. The season is gone, the new goal is to have it ALL (including the center hull) ready to go for next spring.

I had the pleasure to help crew the DF-35 from the Annapolis Sailboat show to its home port in New Jersey this week.

The boat is very impressive in finish and sailing performance. I think the new “traditional” galley layout is a big improvement, and I was especially impressed with light air performance (boat speed easily exceeded true wind speed by about 50% with just the main and genoa). I was also impressed with the ability to point high. This boat points as well as any monohull "racer-cruiser".

The video below was captured along the New Jersey coast between Cape May and Atlantic City. True winds were approx. 25k and boat speed was consistently above 14k, and we exceeded 16k briefly. Not bad and we were traveling with a lot of weight aboard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti3s7PjI2Vo

Larry,
Glad to hear you made it back and had a good "ride".
Gilles and I were racing on that boat a few weeks back. Very impressive ride.
I know we crossed the finish line on a reach doing about 14 knots.
I can't believe how much bigger the 35 is than my 1000.
Great video also.

Oscar,
Show was in my opinion so-so this year. The 35 was by far the hottest looking large boat at the show. It seems the charter cats are taking over the multihulls, which really isn't a good representation. The better multi's seemed to take a pass this year.
We went on Monday, show was empty. We drove down 2 of the guys that were on the return trip for the boat.

Ted

Actually Ted the "ride" could have been better, as we had either light wind or unfavorable wind direction most of the time. But this was a "delivery" to transport the boat home in the least possible time, and one takes what one gets. We only had about 3 hours of excellent sailing the whole trip (out of about 225 nm).

Yes the 35 is a lot bigger than the 1000. The 1000 is a lot bigger than the 920 and 1200 is a lot bigger than the 35. It's amazing what a few more feet added in the middle can allow a designer to accomplish. In volume and area, everything goes up exponentially.

. The better multi's seemed to take a pass this year.

That's because they are so much more expensive than the "Chevvies". I hope they survive and keep making boats, so there will be nice used one for me in a few years.